Weather : Matthew May Hit The United States as a Category 5 Hurricane next Week

As of the latest advisory by the National Hurricane Center at 5PM EDT, Hurricane Matthew has reintensified with winds upgraded to 150 MPH and pressure dropping to 940 millibars (MB) with the eye wobbling altering the forecast path as a result of the intensification phase.

As of the latest advisory by the National Hurricane Center at 2PM EDT the storm packed maximum winds downgraded to 140MPH, but despite a reduction in the system's wind strength it increased in relative intensity with pressure dropping to 943 millibars (MB). The system is also currently defying the tracking pattern moving southward at 2 MPH according to Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance jets.

Despite the non-conducive environment for tropical development, the National Hurricane Center based in Miami, Florida could see that now Hurricane Matthew was an unusually strong tropical wave that appeared to be strengthening and predicted the storm would be a minor hurricane with winds of 80MPH by Friday – but Matthew doubled expectations in all the worst ways intensifying rapidly to 160MPH as of the 11PM EDT advisory on Friday Night. As a meteorological marvel, Matthew is profound becoming the first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean in 9 years – the last being Hurricane Felix in 2007 – with only two Atlantic tropical cyclones having seen intensification levels comparable to Matthew over a 24-hour period – Hurricanes Wilma and Felix respectively. Hurricane Matthew is also the lowest latitude category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean lending to the novelty of the powerful system. 

While onlookers may think of Hurricane Matthew as a weather wonder, in the next 48 hours it will also be a mass casualty event whether it maintains its current path towards Kingston, Jamaica or shifts slightly to the East to impact an even more vulnerable Haiti before slamming into Eastern Cuba.

Read more: Matthew May Hit The United States as a Category 5 Hurricane Next Wee